2008 Woodie Awards
Author recounts 'day in court' with Holocaust denier
Courtney Cook
Issue date: 11/14/07 Section: News
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Lipstadt recounted the case in another book, History on Trial: My Day in Court With a Holocaust Denier, which was the topic of her speech last night in the Rockwell Auditorium. The speech was sponsored by the Kent State Jewish Studies Department, the Office of Dean of Libraries and Hillel.
In her book, Denying the Holocaust, published in 1993, Lipstadt said she spent about 300 words describing the public anti-Semitic remarks Irving had made, including his denial of the Holocaust.
"Even if he wasn't a denier, he gave the deniers leverage," Lipstadt said of the England native. "He was the most dangerous of all deniers because he had an outside reputation other than being known as a Holocaust denier."
| "Instead of mourning another genocide, let's try preventing it." Since February 2003, a government-backed militia called the Janjaweed has been engaged in a systematic "ethnic cleansing" in Darfur, Sudan, and neighboring state, Chad, victimizing the African population. • More than 2 million people in Darfur displaced • More than 112,000 people in Chad displaced • 4 million people are still in need of assistance • More than 450,000 men, women and children have been killed since February 2003 |
Lipstadt immediately gathered a legal team when she received a letter that notified her of the lawsuit, despite multiple sources advising her to simply ignore the case.
"In America, if I say, 'You libeled me,' you have to prove it," Lipstadt said. "In England, if you say, 'You libeled me,' then I have to prove that I didn't. It is very different. If I didn't fight back, he would have won by default, therefore making the 'Irving' version of the Holocaust valid. That is just not something I could bring myself to allow."
Lipstadt did not testify in the trial. She and her legal team also decided not to use any Holocaust survivors as witnesses, for fear that the prosecutor would only make the survivors feel embarrassed and confused.
"We were going to try as hard as possible not to make this a 'did the Holocaust happen' trial, but to prove that David Irving is, in fact, a Holocaust denier," she said.
Lipstadt's legal team advised "nothing she said to the press could be inconsequential." She said she felt "uncharacteristically bewildered" because she could not answer the media's questions, especially when Irving was all over the media.
But a Holocaust survivor gave her the courage to stay silent to the media.
Lipstadt said she was approached by an elderly woman who had pushed herself to the front of the crowd immediately following the first day of the trial. Lipstadt said the woman pulled up her sleeve to show the serial number tattooed on her arm, which was given to her upon her arrival at a concentration camp during the Holocaust.
"She looked at me and said, 'You are fighting for us. You are our witness.' It was then that I knew I could not fail," Lipstadt said.
Contact religion reporter Courtney Cook at
Viewing Comments 1 - 6 of 9
Mr. Jesse Merino
posted 11/14/07 @ 4:14 PM EST
Its amazing! You have nuts all over the World who would deny that there is daylight when its not night!
Why someone would deny the obvious is beyond me. (Continued…)
Tom Hartman
posted 11/15/07 @ 5:55 PM EST
David Irving has NEVER written about the holocaust, so he never has denied it. He was considered dangerous because he did original research that revealed occasional facts that contradicted conventional wisdom. (Continued…)
Joseph
posted 11/16/07 @ 6:47 AM EST
Mr. Jesse Merino,
You can find on youtube clips of films by the US Army from Dachau, Bergen-Belsen, Ravensbrueck, etc... The camps located in the Third Reich proper liberated by US and British troops . (Continued…)
Mr. Jesse Merino
posted 11/16/07 @ 8:04 AM EST
Please remember that the Germans were the first to use Chlorine Gas in the fox holes to "asphixiate" Soldiers from the "other side".
All they would have had to do, was to put a lot of people in a room, fill it with CL2 gas, and it would kill them in a manner of moments!
(Yes, I have been 'hit' with Chlorine Gas, and it "does" take your breath away, and the fact is, that my Assistant at the local Waste Water Treatment Plant in which I was a "turn Operator" was hit hard enough that he almost didnt survive! Just a few minutes contact with the gas, and it fills up the lungs, and "starves" our oxygen and paralyzes the mucus membranes, resulting in a quick death. (Continued…)
James Wilson
posted 11/16/07 @ 3:38 PM EST
Now it's "Even if he wasn't a denier" after years of "he's a denier." And isn't everyone happy that he was locked up, although of course, you say that free speech is precious, one of our most precious liberties, blah blah blah. (Continued…)
Tom Rafatwar
posted 11/20/07 @ 6:00 AM EST
David Irving has never written directly about the "Final Solution", he has never denied that Jews died in concentration camps. He has, on the other hand, provided a huge amount of primary historical documentation and allowed it to speak for itself. (Continued…)
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